The present invention relates to the transmission of documents in the context of document devices, such as printers and scanners, which are installed in automobiles.
Document devices exploiting digital technology, such as electronic printers, input scanners, facsimiles, digital copiers, and the like, are well known in the office context. Another possible useful context for such document devices is in automobiles. In the automobile context, certain unique requirements and opportunities arise which are not anticipated in the office context. The present invention is directed to systems and methods which address these requirements and opportunities.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,896,190 and 5,420,701 show designs of highly miniaturized, battery-powered document devices, such as usable as facsimile devices.
The MobileDoc(trademark) system, described in a press release entitled xe2x80x9cXerox(copyright) Launches Industry""s First System to Send Documents by Cell Phones, Pagers,xe2x80x9d describes a wireless means for transmitting and retrieving image data relating to documents. An overview of the system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,321.
The OnStar(trademark) system, information about which is available as of the filing hereof at www.onstar.com, is a system in which a central information source, which may include a human advisor, can directly contact a particular automobile and interact with the automobile, such as by remotely unlocking doors, or detecting that the airbags have been activated. The means for this contact can be through a direct satellite connection, or a public cellular-phone system.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of operating a document device installed in an automobile, the document device including a printer, a memory, and means for accepting external signals, comprising the steps of accepting external signals and storing the external signals as input image data in the memory, and when the automobile is turned on, indicating that input image data is in the memory.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of operating a document device installed in an automobile, the document device including a selection interface, printer, a memory, and a transceiver for sending and accepting signals, comprising the steps of selecting, at the selection interface, a title relating to a data set; sending a signal related to the title to a station; and receiving from the station image signals related to the title, the printer printing an image based on the image signals.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of operating a document device installed in an automobile, the document device including a printer, comprising the steps of accepting an instruction from outside the automobile; and, as a result of receiving said instruction, making image data available to be printed by the printer.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of communicating to a document device, the document device including a printer, comprising the steps of wirelessly transmitting to the document device an instruction; and, as a result of receiving said instruction, the document device making image data available to be printed by the printer.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of operating a document device, the document device having associated therewith an input scanner for recording image data, means for determining a location of the document device, and means for transmitting image data comprising the steps of: recording image data; determining a location of the document device; selecting a destination a result of the determining step; and wirelessly transmitting at least a portion of the image data to the selected destination.